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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How old was Smith when he filled out an application to the fire department?

2. Why did the city fence off the empty lots near the fire station?

3. Why did one firefighter want to start up a collection at the station in Chapter 7?

4. Why did the Fire Department persist in holding parties for children who regularly harassed firefighters?

5. Where did the firemen's training occur?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Smith view being a firemen as a sign of success when he was a child?

2. In what way can the training firemen undergo never be completely sufficient?

3. How did Smith distinguish between acts of shoplifting and looting within poor neighborhoods?

4. Did Smith feel that the rich New Yorkers mentioned in Chapter 7, who were raising money to bail out Black Panthers, had any real understanding of need?

5. Why does Smith suggest that perhaps even with guidance, South Bronx resident Tina de Vega may still have ended up on drugs and prostituting herself?

6. Why were some of the firefighters unwilling to help out at the department's occasional parties for neighborhood kids?

7. Describe the character of Lieutenant Collins.

8. How did the elementary student, Cynthia, approach her interview with Smith in Chapter 9?

9. What did Smith find most frustrating about the attack on the firefighters (the dropped garbage can) in Chapter 8?

10. What was Smith's attitude toward the man hanging around at the Union Avenue fire in Chapter 10? How did he feel about the man screaming that the firemen were not taking fire victims to the hospital because they didn't care about black people?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Smith discusses dropping out of school because he wanted to start making money and states that he found his own way to survive. In retrospect, was his decision to drop out a good, bad, or neutral one? What could he have more easily accomplished had he earned his diploma? Are there things that he learned while working that he could not have learned in school?Could he have put those things off until after school?

Essay Topic 2

Smith continued to work in the South Bronx despite the dangers and despite the fact that moving to another neighborhood would still allow him to serve as a firefighter, but in a safer environment. What compels some people to risk their lives for little or nothing in return? Are some people born with a unique sense of compassion and generosity or can this be cultivated in anyone? What kind of intangible rewards did Smith get from serving the South Bronx that he may not have gotten from serving, say, the Upper East Side?

Essay Topic 3

There were several incidents in the book in which firefighters were attacked by the very neighbors they were trying to help. The book took place at a time in which young people were questioning all authority, especially that of police. Why were firefighters seen as authority figures not to be trusted? Did Smith view this as a logical view of firemen or as a confusing result of desperate poverty?

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